Brendon McCullum. Photo / Paul Estcourt
Brendon McCullum's description of his record-breaking innings against Bangladesh yesterday was succinct: "just a bit of filthy slogging".
Perhaps he was hungry - the New Zealand reply to Bangladesh's hopeless 93 began before the scheduled lunch break - or maybe he wanted to give the crowd some entertainment
to end the year.
Either way, he lashed 50 in only 19 balls, eclipsing his own New Zealand record for the quickest ODI 50 - set against Canada in St Lucia during last year's World Cup - by one ball.
Fittingly he hit the winning four to finish unbeaten on 80; his opening partner Jamie How, who was reduced to doing a running commentary as the pyrotechnics unfolded, got seven. It was all over in six overs, 95 for none.
McCullum clubbed six sixes and nine fours and faced 28 balls. He insisted he was unaware of the New Zealand record as he was going busily about his work. "Not at all. Those are things that come along if you get lucky. I had a bit of luck early on [dropped on the third man boundary] but I started seeing it okay," he said with a big dollop of understatement.
He said his mind turned to putting his foot down if he got the chance at the innings break. "We said we'd done such a good job [with the ball], here's an opportunity to really gain a little more momentum heading into the tests, and we managed to do that."
The world record is 17 balls by Sri Lankan Sanath Jayasuriya on a postage stamp ground in Singapore against Pakistan 12 years ago.
